LeAnn Rimes Stops Fighting with Dad

Of Rimes and reason: Wilbur Rimes, 58, the father and one-time co-manager of country singer LeAnn Rimes, says that he and his 19-year-old daughter have peacefully settled their nearly 2-year-long legal battle. "It is difficult to express just how happy I am that all of the legal troubles between my daughter and I are over," Wilbur Rimes is quoted as saying in Thursday's edition of The Tennessean newspaper. According to Launch.com, the president of Rimes's music label, Mike Curb, is said to have been instrumental in Rimes and Wilbur's reconciliation. The Associated Press quotes Curb, who signed LeAnn to her first contract when she was 12, as saying that he is "very, very, very happy that it's all resolved." The war of the Rimes's began in May of 2000, when LeAnn launched a lawsuit alleging that Wilbur had fleeced her out of more than $7 million through excessive fees and other schemes, PEOPLE reported in its May 29, 2000 issue under the headline "Pall in the Family." At the time, according to the suit, Wilbur and his partner, Lyle Walker, then 64, together were receiving more than 30 percent in fees and commissions on LeAnn's income. The papers filed with the Dallas County district court alleged that from 1996 through 1999, Wilbur and Walker took in $8 million in royalties, which was $5 million more than LeAnn was paid during the same period. No details of their resolution are available, and the singer's publicist had no comment on the father's statement. In related news, last month PEOPLE reported that LeAnn and dancer Dean Sheremet, 21, who met in May at the Academy of Country Music Awards in Nashville, announced that they plan to wed this year.